kmrt - sept 2012 - setting up a virtual community2012_publish

Building a connected community

Lyn Murnane

Knowledge Manager

Note: this presentation has been de-branded to enable

sharing. All content was created by me and is correct at time of

creation – 4/9/2012

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Overview

• About our Community • Setting up our Community • Moderation• “Selling” our Community• The growth of our Community

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My company?

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• A leading provider assisting international students to find the right overseas study option for them.• Placements in AU, US, CA, UK & NZ

• Also manages and part-owns the english language testing in Australia – the leading test of English language proficiency for study and the preferred test for migration

• My company is owned and governed by 38 Australian universities and SEEK Education

• 27 countries – 500 education counsellors

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Some background

• Significant investment made to developing a CRM and KB which went live in June 2011

• A fully integrated lead management, application management, visa processing and student relationship management system

• Provides consistent workflow and data capture across the whole network

• It delivers a platform that enables the company’s multi-destination student placement strategy

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Knowledge BaseThe Knowledge Base is a central database of information containing

– Institution profiles, campus and location information, – Program, course fee & entry criteria information, – Student testimonials – Client training/power point briefings, as well as video’s, photos

• The Knowledge Base contains over 128,000 answer pages– 99% are automated (Standard templates of data collected about institutions and

programs) – updated 6 monthly and as required.– About 1700 manual answers– Data is sourced from publically available information on web sites

• Knowledge At The Point of Action, or KAPA means Counsellors can get relevant information when they need it– Access via student workspace– Access via applications workspace– ‘Push’ of KB links in matching

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The gaps...

• The knowledge base has a formal feedback function for counsellors to provide updates or corrections

• We have an excellent support team who communicate updates and changes to systems and data as required

• We had significant training materials and supporting documentation stored in a number of locations globally

• Counsellors would email the Service Desk or known SMEs to ask questions about data and processes but only if they knew the SME, or knew to ask the Service Desk

• We had starting building a community portal for our students but its rollout was significantly delayed

Where could we store shared information?Where could I ask questions of my global peers?

Where could I ask how my peers handled random enquiries?KMrt - September 2012

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We co-opted the community portal!

• We gave our system a tagline to encourage adoption– “if it’s not in OSCAR it never happened!”

• We asked our users who they thought ‘OSCAR’ was

• The globe character was the most popular response

• We worked with our Service desk to build a new look portal for our counsellors

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OSCAR Connect was born• A place where OSCAR users can share and gain knowledge and information• A learning resource to help peers discover best practices, specifically about

using OSCAR and related counselling processes• A place to submit and share ideas about potential improvements to OSCAR• “It is through the process of sharing information and experiences with the

group that the members learn from each other, and have an opportunity to develop themselves personally and professionally” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice

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Governance & Moderation

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All content is overseen by a moderator.

Guidelines for users are available from homepage of OSCAR Connect

Key concepts• Respect all• OSCAR related only• Examples of what to

post and what NOT to post are included in guidelines

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How did we sell OSCAR Connect?• A new project – OSCAR 2.0• We built audio / video briefing packs,

the 1st presented the OSCAR character. OSCAR voiced all briefing packs.

• We stored the briefing packs and training materials, as well as news items in OSCAR Connect

• We did not email out briefing packs but sent links to OSCAR Connect and encouraged our Regional OSCAR champions to read, and then share the content

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OSCAR reputation

• A user is given points for participating in OSCAR Connect

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Originally new posts and comments had a higher value.Now rating a post or comment provides higher points

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OSCAR ‘bling’• Depending on points accumulated, a different

‘bling’ icon is displayed next to a user’s name

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By viewing the change in Member numbers, I can see who has changed from ‘lurker’ to participant.

Last week I had 310 Members and only 1 new user so 7 people felt ‘moved’ enough to comment this week.

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Sample discussions & Ideas generated

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Well received idea that received votes & comments – easy deliverable that was implemented at end May

Counsellors sharing their tips & best practices with their peers

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Most Popular Connections – May 2012

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OSCAR Connect growth – Since 18 March 2012

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Then and Now• May 2012 • Sept 2012

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Current State of Play

• OSCAR Connect has been allowed to grow organically• We have tried to be led without defining an ‘end state’

• Responsibility for requesting and assessing system changes now responsibility of the network

• A key group of users (Super User Group) around the global network has been appointed to decide on these changes – network led and owned not Corporate led.

• Challenge of coordinating a global group over multiple time zones

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Super User Group• Has a dedicated SUG space on OSCAR

Connect• There are 3 discussion boards

– Release Management• A section showing upcoming BAU changes/releases

that require SUG sign off before they go in to production

• A process has been developed to support this

– SUG Works in Progress• A section of current agenda items/discussion items

that are connected to our weekly meetings

– SUG Ideas / Future Agenda items• A section where we can all submit ideas (voting

req’d) for upcoming meetings that you would like to see addressed

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Questions

• Before we move on .....

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Activity – What’s next for OSCAR Connect?

• How do we encourage further participation in OSCAR Connect?

• What are our next steps for OSCAR Connect?

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• Do we need to define an ‘end state?